PHILADELPHIA — It was just a one-game scare for Ben Simmons after all.

The Nets star was available Saturday against the 76ers, while still on a minutes restriction, after missing Wednesday’s loss due to a left knee contusion.

He was injured Monday when attempting to block a layup in the fourth quarter — landing awkwardly, getting subbed out and then ultimately missing another game after the one-appearance cameo followed 38 missed games.

“That is not at all something that’s going to linger,” Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said pregame. “Something that just acutely happened in the game, and a couple days of treatment, responded to and hopefully we continue down the path of playing.”

Simmons’ initial results provided optimism that he’d avoided another injury in a career filled with — and defined by — them.

An MRI revealed no structural damage and wwelling didn’t require draining, The Post’s Brian Lewis reported.

And Vaughn had reiterated Thursday that the “hopeful expectation” was that the Nets would have their star back in the lineup at Wells Fargo Center, where Simmons spent the first four healthy seasons of his career earning three All-Star Game appearances, a Rookie of the Year honor, an All-NBA first-team selection and an all-defensive First Team spot.

It all depended on how Simmons responded to treatment.

Those years, Simmons flashed the potential that the Nets banked on when they acquired him.

Instead, what followed has been a puzzling collection of missed games.

It’s what made the latest one, different from the nerve impingement in his lower back that sidelined Simmons earlier this season, concerning, even as his agent, Bernie Lee, wrote on X earlier this week that Simmons’ absence against the Suns was due to “being cautious here.”

That ended up being an accurate timeline, allowing Simmons to log his third game at Wells Fargo Center since the February 2022 trade and attempt to replicate his 11-assist, zero-turnover performance from Monday against the Jazz.

“I think we saw the last opportunity that he played versus Utah, how that changes the overall scope of our team on both ends of the floor,” Vaughn said. “So it’s a great chance for him to get back out with his teammates, so I’m happy that he’s playing and that he was able to respond to treatment and be ready for today’s game.”

Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain) missed his third consecutive game and is still day-to-day.

Day’Ron Sharpe (hyperextended left knee) has done some court work with one of the Nets’ coaches but without any “extra bodies around him,” Vaughn said.

76ers star Joel Embiid didn’t play Saturday due to a lateral meniscus injury in his left knee.